Stocking



Jan. 20, 1931. T. H. BROWN 1,739,595

STOCKING Fi led March 11, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 nvvENTO'? 130177625 IKE/"0W1 /v A WITNESS BY/ 7 Jan. 20, 1931. T. H. BROWN 1,789,695

STOCKING Filed March 11, 1930' 2 sneezs'sneez 2 fang. 5.

INVENTGI? Arron/v5):

Patented Jan. 20, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE THOMAS H. BROWN, OF ABINGTON, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE WINDSOR MILLS, INC. 01'! PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA A CORPORATION OF PENNSYL 'V'ANLA.

STOCKING Application filed March 11, 1930. Serial No. 434,912.

My invention relates to full-fashioned stockings, a principal object thereof being to improve the Wearing quality of hosiery of this class by minimizing the liability of the stocking giving way adjacent the point of juncture of the leg and the welt or hem portion thereof in the vicinity of the seam which serves to unite the selvage edges of the leg portion. 7

My invention is particularly applicable to the lighter and more delicate grades of silk or artificial silk stockings for which there is now a large commercial demand and which are generally referred to in the trade as chiffon stockings for such stockings are necessarily knitted from very fine thread, and by reason of their delicatetexture tend particularly togive way at the aforesaid point, as the strain imposed on the fabric by the garters of the wearer tends to concentrate in the vicinity thereof and thus cause the fabric to give awa the stocking, as a whole, being weaker at said point than at any other place. The fact that it is at present customary to maintain the garters relatively tight with a view to keeping the wearers stocking in as smooth and unwrinkled condition as possible and that the garters at their upper extremities are secured to the wearers corset or other garment which forms a relatively firm and fixed point of support therefor enhances the tendency of the stocking to give way, for the movements of the body of the wearer are transmitted through the garters to the welt of the stocking, and the natural distribution of the internal strains and stresses thus set up results in the failure ofthe stocking at its said weakest point.

It is my belief that the tendency of fullfashioned stockings to give way as just described may arise from the fact that the selvage-uniting seam ordinarily terminatesin the inside layer of the welt at a point short of the point of juncture of the welt with the 1 body of the stocking. Thus, as both edges of the welt are ordinarily knitted into the top course of the body and the two selvage edges of the inner welt are not sewed together adj acent the point of juncture of the welt with I the body, the threads of the top course receive tension in different directions from the two layers of the welt while the stocking is being Worn; furthermore, as the stress resulting from the tension of the garters is somewhat angular to the rear seam at this point and as the stitches with which the seam is made are usually four or five courses apart, the intermediate courses receive no transverse support therefrom and consequently excessive strain is put upon the courses through which the seam stitches pass. But irrespective of the correctness of the foregoing possible explanation for the cause of the failure to which I have referred, the present invention is designed to eliminate or at least materially reduce its occurrence and thereby correspondmgly enhance the wearing qualities and normal useful life ofstockings of the class to which it is most particularly applicable.

Among the purposes and objects of my invention, therefore, is to provide a full-fashioned stocking having reenforcement in the vicinity of the point of juncture of the welt, body and seam, whereby the tendency of the stocking to give way in the vicinity of this point during normal wear is virtually eliminated.

A further object of my invention is to provide means whereby the internal stresses in the fabric in the vicinity of the aforesaid point may be uniformly distributed through adjacent courses and wales of the body of the stocking, thus avoiding the application of any abnormal tension stresses to the threads of any particular portion of the body of the stocking through the pull of the garters on the welt of the stocking.

A further object of the invention is to provide a stocking having reenforcement of the character aforesaid formed in various designs and thus serving the additional purpose of improving the appearance of the stocking while at the same time increasing its resistance to normal wear.

Further objects of my invention are to provide reenforcement in the vicinity of the point of greatest internal stress in the stock ing fabric during normal wear, which, in one embodiment, is designed to conform generally of the stocking whereby the graceful appearance of the stocking is preserved and in certain respects enhanced. 7

Other purposes, objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from or more specifically mentioned in the following' description of-cert-ain embodiments thereof as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the said drawings, Fig. 1 is a composite view showing in elevation a knitted stocking blank provided with reenforcement in accordance with one form of my invention and also in perspective a view of the blank as it would appear when made up to form the completed stocking, it being understood that, as in the ordinary course of full-fashioned hosiery manufacture, the blank is initially knitted flat and the selvage edges thereof then sewed together at the back seam, after which the foot portion of the stocking is knitted on to form the finished stocking in accordance with the usual practice; Fig. 2 is a enerally similar but fragmentary view of a blank and the completed stocking formed therefrom and provided in accordance with m invention with a reenforcement of so1new at modified form; Fig. 3 is a similar view showing another form of reenforcement, While Fig. 4 also shows a still further modified form. Like characters are employed to indicate like parts in the several figures, in which I have indicated the courses of the knitted fabric by generallyihorizontally extending lines but for the sake of clearness have omitted any indication of the wales of the fabric. It is thus to be understood that the said fabric embodies wales and courses such as are customarily produced by the ordinary knitting processes usual in the art of stocking manufacture.

Referring now more particularly to the -form of the invention shown in Fig. 1, the

knitted blank 1 comprisesa body portion 2 at one end of which is-knitted the hem or welt ortion 3 and at the other end of which are disposed the heel reenforcements 4. in accordance with theusual practice. It will be understood that in the manufacture of such blanks the welt portion is ordinarily first knitted in a single piece of the proper length and then folded over and proper adjustments made in the knitting machine, so that the superposed ends of the welt are knitted together with the first course of thread in the body or leg portion of the stocking. The leg is usually knitted with lighter threads than the welt portion and, in my invention beginning with the first course of the leg portion, the ends of the courses near the points of intersection of the selvage edges 2 with the welt are provided with reenforcing threads knitted in with the courses as indicated at 55. In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 1, each reenforcement is of the same length transversely of the blank for several courses below the welt and is then progressively narrowed toward the adjacent selvage, that is, is made shorter successively for several courses so as to produce a stepped formation, and finally made of the same width for a few additional courses as shown, after which the rest of the body portion is knitted in the usual way, including the heel reenforcements 4 which are formed, preferably, in a generally similarly stepped manner, thus completing the blank. The selvage edges 2' I of the body are then sewed together to form the rear seam 6 and the foot portion 7 knitted on in the usual way, thus providing a stocking which is substantiallysymmetrical in the general outline of the reenforcing por tions and of a pleasing and attractive appearance, while embodying a reenforcement It adjacent the intersection of the body and welt at the rear seam operative to resist and distribute the excessive tension stresses encountered at this point.

As it will be understood that other portions I of the body of the stocking are ordinarily subjected, while the stocking is being worn, to substantially stocking made as described and rovided with reenforcement at the aforesald point uniform wear and stresses, a 7

will wear very satisfactorily and will have enforcement ad acent the heel of the stocking and which forms no part of the invention In? be of any preferred design.

, n Fig. 3 I have shown a substantially rectangular reenforcement R which is made by providing reenforcements of equal width through several courses and for a relatively few wales only adjacent the opposite selvage edges of the blank, and I have found it convenient in this form to provide reenforcements cxtendin across'about eight or ten wales on each side of the rear seam 6 when the stocking is completed. If desired, the rectangular form of reenforcement may be eighteen to twenty wales wide on either side of the seam, reenforcements of approximately this width being shown in Fig. 4, the reenforced portion B being of substantially thesame length in all the courses through which it extends.

Thus, as will be apparent from the foregoing description of certain forms of my invention as illustrated in the drawings, the reenforc'ed area which I have provided ad: jacent the juncture of the leg and welt portions of the stockings in the vicinity of the seam is effective both to resist and to-distribute the internal strains set up in the fabric by the pull of the wearers garters, with the result that the said strains, instead of being concentrated at what is normally the weakest point of an ordinary stocking, are equalized and diffused over a comparatively large area while, additionally, the said point is itself made more resistant and thus better able to Withstand Whatever strains and stresses are necessarily imposed thereon under normal conditions of use. Moreover, as the stitches uniting the selvage edges of the blank below the welt are disposed in the said reenforced area of the leg, they are effectively anchored and thus, although necessarily spaced apart vertically to a relatively considerable extent, are effective to securely hold the said edges together andhave a markedly decreased tendency to pull out under the strains and stresses incident to normal wear than when, as in the stockings of the prior art, they merely pass through the delicate fabric of the leg portion.

I am awarethat full-fashioned stockings are customarily provided with reenforcements in the heel and toe portions to protect against the external chafing of the shoe when the stocking is being worn, but so far as I am aware no attempt has heretofore been made to equalize and diffuse internal strains and stresses in the fabric itself wit-h a View to increasing the wearing qualities of the stocking with consequent prolongation of its useful life, and I thus believe that I am the first to propose reenforcement of the leg portion of the stocking in the vicinity of its juncture with the welt and adjacent the seam for this purpose.

While I have herein shown and described certain forms of my invention with considerable particularity, I do not thereby desire or intend to confine or limit myself specifically thereto or to any particular form, shape or design of reenforcement in the vicinity of the juncture of the welt and leg portions of the stocking adjacent the seam, since the particular configuration thereof, as well as the mannerof forming the same during the manufacture of the stocking is largely a matter of choice and thus susce tible of considerable variation and mocli cation from the specific embodiments to which I have more especially referred. However, under most conditions, reenforced areas of the general form or type of those shown in Figs. 1 and 2 will be preferred as they are better adapted to effect the desired distribution of the internal strains and stresses than those in which the courses of reenforcing threads are all of equal length on opposite sides of the seam.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States:

1. A full-fashioned stocking comprising a leg portion, a welt portion and a seam extending longitudinally through said portions, and a reenforced area disposed on opposite sides of said seam adjacent the point of juncture of the legand welt portions and extending for a limited distance circumferentially of the stocking in opposite directions from the scam, the said area being widest adjacent the welt and tapering inwardly in opposite directions toward the seam from said point of greatest width.

2. A full-fashioned stocking comprising a leg portion, a welt portion and a seam extending longitudinally through said portions, said leg portion having a reenforcement lying on opposite sides of the seam below the welt and extending for a limited distance 011- cumferentially of the stocking in opposite directions therefrom, said reenforcement being of greatest width adjacent the welt and comprising a progressively decreasing number of courses from said point of greatest width whereby said reenforcement is gradually tapered inwardly toward the seam in opposite directions.

3. A full-fashioned stocking comprising a leg portion and a welt portion and a generally triangular reenforced area disposed in the leg portion adjacent the welt on opposite sides of the seam uniting the selvage edges of said portion, the side edges of said area inclining oppositely inwardly from the welt toward the seam. I

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 10th day of March, 1930.

. THOMAS H. BROWN. 

